Author: Jon Wilkins

The imposition of penalty points upon a driving licence can prove costly; the majority of Insurance Companies will increase an insurance premium by anything between 10 to 20% for a single speeding conviction. It is also likely that the speeding motorist’s new best friend, the speed awareness course, will also result in a hike in insurance premiums. Read More

Newport Magistrates Court have told me that I had been convicted of a speeding offence in my absence. The offence was caught on a speed camera. Penalty points were endorsed upon my driving licence and a fine, prosecution and criminal courts were ordered to be paid. The total comes to about £1000. I did not receive any notification of the court proceedings and do not accept that I was speeding. What shall I do? Read More

I have been charged with an offence of Dangerous Driving and am due to appear at Cardiff Crown Court. I deny that my driving was in any way dangerous. What will happen at the first crown court appearance?Read More

The latest figures from the Ministry of Justice have show that prosecutions for motoring offences increased last year by 4.5%, from 566,000 in 2013 to 591,000 in 2014.

The annual Criminal Justice statistics for 2014 show that the largest increase was for speeding offences, which saw a 26% increase in Court appearances to 159,000 speeding prosecutions last year. In addition, offences of driving without insurance increased to 144,000 offences. Read More

There is a groundswell of expert opinion suggesting that the legal limit in drink driving offences should be lowered to fall in line with Scotland and the rest of Europe.

Since the new drink drive limit was introduced in Scotland at the tail end of 2014, drink drive offences have reduced by 17% within the first 6 months of the new legal limit being introduced. Read More

For any motoring offence committed after the 13th April 2015 the cost of appearing in Court for a motoring offence will increase exponentially. The State has introduced a new type of charge for any ‘criminal’ appearing before either the Crown Court or the Magistrates Court – known as the ‘Criminal Courts Charge‘ : Read More

The new drug driving laws, brought in on the 2nd March 2015, mean that any driver caught have used drugs and driving faces the loss of their driving licence for at least 12 months and the risk of a prison sentence. The issue for those who perhaps only use illegal drugs on the weekend could be profound, there is a zero tolerance policy in place for any illegal drugs found in your system. Read More

From today, the 2nd March 2015, the law in respect of drug driving will change.

The police have been empowered to use road side ‘drugalyser’ – a device that will be able to measure the amount of a particular drug in a drivers blood system. The principal will be the same as a roadside breathalyzer for drink driving offences. Additionally, Police officers have also been trained to consider the use of a road side impairment test to check a drivers reaction, balance and coordination. Read More

The number of drivers fined in court for speeding offences in South Wales has tripled, according to new figures from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ).

The South Wales Police force area saw one of the biggest increases in England and Wales with 6,491 motorists fined in 2013, compared to 2,181 three years earlier. The numbers of Dyfed-Powys and Gwent motorists fined by magistrates doubled. Read More